Return to the Island (Island Duet Book 2)

by L. B. Dunbar

  I pressed upward and turned to look at him over my shoulder.

  “What do you mean you understand? And I didn’t take any money. It wasn’t a contest. I didn’t even know there was money. I had nothing when I returned. Nothing, Tack. And that money went to start an organization, one I think is doing good for others.”

  “It is doing good, Mouse. I didn’t mean anything by it. I just meant I don’t want you to leave. I want to take care of you.”

  “Because you feel responsible,” I bit.

  He opened his mouth and then closed it. He tried again. “Because I don’t want you to feel Miller is all you have.” I gasped in response. He’d heard everything, and I was prepared to insult his eavesdropping skills when he added, “I want you to have me, too.”

  I stared down at him. His eyes softened in the dim light of my room, the green finally the color I recognized. I wanted to trust him again. I wanted to think I could rely on him, but we were no longer on the island, two people in need of togetherness. He lived in a world separate from me.

  “Just tonight, Mouse. Just lay back down and let me hold you. Nothing else tonight, I promise.”

  I nodded, suddenly drained. I scooted back down and curled into him as we were. I expected sleep, but found myself wide awake, envisioning an island, a heated tent, and a time when I wasn’t worried I’d lose him.

  + +

  Just like the previous night, he was gone in the morning. I promised Miller I would spend some time with him. No more avoiding Tack, I said, so there was something I needed to do first. I woke with a new perspective. I allowed myself the day before and forgave my weakness. I deserved to be touched and tasted. I didn’t ask for it, and I couldn’t return it, so I accepted that I let him do what he did because I wanted it. Today was a new day and it would not happen again. Abby and Miller and money and organizations stood in the way, and I wouldn’t risk any of those things, as much as I wanted Tack.

  I found him in the most surprising of places—a boat house. He was wearing board shorts and a white T-shirt, a baseball cap backward on his head. He looked like a college kid as he worked with a tool over the planks of wood curved for the underside of a boat.

  “What’s this?” I asked, too curious to start out with my purpose, too impressed to see him working on a boat. I’d startled him and he jumped as he spun to face me.

  “Hey, how did you find me here?”

  “I asked Branson,” I said, hitching a thumb over my shoulder in the direction of the resort. It was a little hike down the hill and over to the old boat house but I found the one Branson described. “So what are you doing?”

  He turned and rested his back on the structure held up by a pulley of some type. He spread his legs, but crossed his arms.

  “I’m building a boat.” His eyes squinted at me as he spoke, as if he was trying to tell me more. I smiled slowly in response, and his lips curled, too. We shared the same memory. We’d built a double outrigger together. This one definitely looked more professional and polished.

  “What’s her name?” I asked, remembering he told me all boats were female, and they all deserved a name.

  “Vixen 2.” His eyes danced as he spoke, but my mouth fell open.

  “The first one is gone, isn’t it?”

  “The hurricane took her.” The comment pulled at my heart for two reasons, the first being the loss of what we worked so hard to build. He took great pride in what we had done. The original Vixen had been a valiant effort. The second memory was that of the hurricane and all that happened during the night. The hurricane seemed like the perfect bridge for what I came to say.

  “I never had the chance to thank you for all you did.” He waved his hand in response, dismissing my words, but I continued. “I mean it. I was scared out of my mind that day. I couldn’t think straight. I never would have made it without you.” His hand stilled and his eyes watched my face. “And that night, well…” I sighed. “That night was the best night of my life.” I blinked back the tears threatening to fall. They were good tears. I was filled with happy memories of being with him. He stood straighter, and I sensed he wanted to step toward me, but I held up a hand and stepped back. I didn’t want him to touch me. I had things to say.

  “I wanted to return something. I don’t know how I ended up with it, other than in the rush of packing up, it mixed with my things.” I pulled my prized possession from my bag and held it out to him. He stared at the book—The Little Prince.

  “I thought it was lost with all my other stuff.” He hadn’t reached for it and my hand trembled holding it out to him.

  “Did you lose most of your things?” I asked.

  “I only lost the most important thing,” he answered, still not taking the book from my hand. His eyes hadn’t left mine. He crossed his arms again and returned to leaning against the boat. “Can I ask you, why didn’t you come to me?”

  “And say what, we were part of a social experiment, and we failed?”

  “Yes,” he said, aghast, then lowered his voice and asked, “Did we fail?”

  I shrugged a shoulder. I had only failed in losing him.

  “I could have helped you,” he added as the silence built.

  “How could you have helped me?”

  “I could have given you everything.” Silence fell again like a heavy weight between us and I drew a deep breath.

  “I did come to see you.”

  He stood up again and I lowered my hand, still holding the book.

  “You did?” His voice was like a surprised child, pleased but confused.

  “I did. I didn’t know where else to look for you so I went to Corbin Industries. Let me tell you, that is some tough security,” I quipped, attempting to laugh but his face had fallen and he found no humor in what I said. “I’d just learned about the social experiment—Lillian’s version. I worried that she would expose your name and I didn’t think that would be good for your reputation. I mean, you’re Terrence Jackson Corbin the fourth.” I waved a hand at him. “I had already learned you were entered into restoration as a means to protect what you’d done, who you were with, and keep you out of jail. I assumed your father had known restoration would be beneficial and protective. I wanted to tell you what I knew and let you know that I had no intention of following through with my dissertation. I would protect your name at all cost.” His nostrils flared, and his chest moved with heavy breaths. He wore no expression on his face.

  “They refused to let me see you. I didn’t have an appointment. I wasn’t on an approved list. They had no idea who I was. And I realized…” I paused as my voice faltered. “I just accepted that it might be for the best. If I wanted to protect you, I shouldn’t make contact with you.”

  “You had no right to make that decision without me,” he snapped.

  “But I did,” I replied defiantly, but my tone soft. I could not take back the past. “I already felt guilty for leaving you behind. I was picked up, literally, and flung over Franco’s shoulder and taken to the boat. I never even made it back to the treehouse.” My lids closed briefly with fond memories of my home wrapped around a tree. It was the only home that felt like mine until I bought the building for The Mouse Trap, having office space on the first floor and my apartment on the second.

  “Did he hurt you?” Tack gasped and I shook my head.

  “Anyway, I continued with my plan not to include your name. I decided you weren’t real and the experience was a vision quest. I was relieved when Lillian didn’t use your name either, though, I suspect your lawyers had something to do with that. I changed my name so I could publish my work and not be connected directly with the trials that placed us on the island. I still had all my field notes, and I guess, at one point, I was just angry. I decided I earned the right for that degree. I wrote in a manner that I had dreamed you. Maybe it wasn’t reality after all, but a fantasy inside my head to restore my strength and give me power.” I swiped at a tear and cursed myself for letting them fall. “But I still have you
to thank because in my head or not, it was real to me. So very real. And it changed everything. Being with you. Lov…” I stopped for a breath, breaking off on the thought of loving him. “Just being with you, it made all the difference in me.”

  He pressed off the boat and stepped toward me, but I stepped back.

  “You already told me you feel responsible for me, and I just wanted to assure you that I hold you in no obligation. I wanted you to know that while it was rough at first, I’m good now. Things are good and you don’t need to feel responsible. You don’t need to feel like you have to give me the million dollars. Miller and I discussed it, and if you heard everything between Miller and me, then you know how I feel. While we could use the money, I don’t want it this way.”

  “This way?” he questioned. “At the expense of your heart, right? Mouse, listen to me. I’m not giving you money out of some self-serving pity. And to clarify, it has nothing to do with how I feel about you either. Your organization deserves the money. It’s well planned out and it’s sound. You have good intentions and you need the capital.” He swiped a hand through his hair and I had to ask.

  “How you feel about me?” My voice broke as I repeated the words, harshness squeaking in. “At dinner, you practically ignored me, acting like you hadn’t devoured me fifteen minutes before. You stood with Abby all night and then you break into my room to sleep, only sleep, with me, and disappear in the morning.”

  He smiled slowly, the curl to his lush lips growing, and I wanted to wipe the smirk off his face.

  “Abby warned me it might look like you slept your way to the money.” A gasp escaped, and I stepped back with the thought, but Tack closed the distance. He reached for my arm and tugged me toward him. “I don’t want to harm your reputation, so I needed to be on my best behavior. I was distant at dinner, but let me tell you, it was damn near the hardest thing I’ve ever done because I had gone down on you fifteen minutes before, and I hadn’t had my fill. You were all I could think about. And then I had to prance around like you weren’t the most important person in the room to me, trying to play a game to keep it equal among all of you when all I wanted to do was drop to my knees again and take you across a table. And if you don’t want me in your room, kick me out. You’ve done it before.” I gasped again, but he continued on. “And fuck Abby. But it’s damn reassuring if you’re jealous of her because that means you don’t want anyone near me, like I don’t want anyone near you.”

  With that declaration, his mouth crushed mine. His hand came to my jaw, but his mouth met mine first, and he devoured me. Hungry wasn’t enough to describe the way he took my lips, savoring them, drinking me in, before plunging his tongue between my lips, licking inside my mouth, striving for every drop of sweet flavor I could offer him. He didn’t stop, but continued to lap and lick, nip and suck. No corner of my mouth was left unturned, untouched, unsavored. His body pressed to mine, and we moved until I felt my back hit the side of his boat. He leaned into me and kissed me more, but kept his hands on my jaw. Eventually, his hunger staved and the kissing slowed, lingering with a final peck here and another nibble there before pulling back and looking into my eyes.

  “I know a lot of time has passed. We need time to rebuild, Mouse. Give me that time.”

  I couldn’t say no. I could hardly think. The way he kissed me. The way he held my jaw. He possessed me. I’d learned that on the island. He dominated me because my heart belonged to him.

  “Okay,” I said weakly, and his smile brightened his face.

  “Come with me today. Please. I want you to myself. I don’t care what they think. I want you alone with me. I have something planned.”

  I smiled slowly in response to his excitement but more so because he was asking. He wanted me to say yes to him.

  “I’ll go wherever you lead.”

  14

  Juliet

  I met him at the marina an hour later.

  “Dress casual. Bathing suit, cover up. All clothing optional,” he laughed with a shrug. I smiled at his playfulness, but I still didn’t know what to bring so I overpacked. My flip-flops flapped down the dock as I found the slip after directions from the harbormaster.

  Tack stepped out from the underbelly of a large catamaran, and I paused when he saw me. He wore another T-shirt and a different pair of board shorts. The baseball cap was gone.

  “Hello beautiful,” he said, jumping off the boat deck onto the dock.

  “Wow, this is something,” I said, eyeing the ocean-ready catamaran. This was much larger than our double-outrigger carved from a fallen tree.

  “Welcome aboard,” Tack said, a smile in his voice as he stepped forward and kissed my cheek. I blushed like a schoolgirl at his sweetness. He stepped back and swept a hand to the gangplank, following me up the ramp.

  “Carlos, this is Juliet,” he said, introducing me to someone dressed like an authority, with a sailor-type shirt and white shorts. Carlos was very island-looking, with chocolate skin and dark eyes. He saluted me before reaching for my hand to shake. His smile was friendly as he greeted me. “She’s precious cargo,” Tack added.

  “All set?” Carlos asked Tack, and I was pointed toward a seat as another man pulled up the gangplank and caught the ropes anchoring us to the dock. We puttered steadily out of the holding slip, but picked up speed quickly as we cleared the short bay.

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve prepared a stop for us before we reach our final destination. The first one is not far from here, so just get comfortable. You have a suit, right?” I tugged at the strings hanging out of my tank to confirm that I followed his orders. The motion was noted and a crooked smile formed on his lips.

  “What?” I snipped without harshness.

  “I’m happy you’re here,” he said. My heart pattered faster in my chest. I was excited to be with him, too. I’d let Miller know where I was going, as far as the information I had—I was spending the day with Tack. He didn’t seem to mind after all, having made his own plans for snorkeling with Tom and Mike.

  Tack directed me to a cabin below deck, where I placed my bag. He stopped me before I could climb the steps again and kissed me. Both hands placed on my jaw.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “For what?” I giggled.

  “For today.” His thumbs caressed my cheeks.

  “We haven’t done anything,” I laughed.

  “Yet,” he amended before kissing me again.

  Returning above board, he led me to netting between the two large outriggers slicing through the sea. Directing me to sit, I stared out at the open water as we rounded the island. The crystal-clear liquid gave off a turquoise cast. The beach, reflected with white sand, was peppered with people. Tack sat next to me and spoke.

  “We’re headed to Turtle Beach, a place to swim with the sea turtles. I don’t know how many we will see because it’s almost breeding season, but I thought it would be a cool experience.”

  I sat up straighter and clapped like I was a little kid. “I’ve never swam with sea turtles before.”

  His hand rubbed up my back and cupped the nape of my neck. He kissed my shoulder. “I’m pleased to do this with you, then.”

  Reaching the bay, we jumped from the catamaran to the cove to snorkel. Tack was attentive, as I had reminded him I wasn’t a great swimmer. “I remember,” he said and my heart skipped a beat again. We’d snorkeled together in his own little bay by the island, but we couldn’t go deep with only one snorkel unit.

  The sea turtles were incredible, floating gracefully beneath the surface. I didn’t want to get too close, disturbing their natural habitat, but their splendor and beauty astonished me.

  “This is incredible,” I said to Tack, and my reward was his full smile. Face glistening with water, eyes alight with pleasure, his mouth opened and exposed white teeth.

  “So are you.” We returned to the boat, where lunch was produced. Spicy fish tacos topped with crunchy coleslaw was the most delicious meal, complimented with the islan
d specialty—rum punch.

  “You know, it really is a sin to look that good,” I said eying him across from me as we ate. He’d removed the T-shirt and the board shorts, revealing a pair of black European swim shorts. He looked like a tropics model.

  “You’re pretty gorgeous yourself,” he said, his green eyes the brightest I’d ever seen as they roamed over my body in my yellow bikini.

  “Abby’s pretty,” I said, my voice falling a little. Tack set his taco on his plate as his expression faltered.

  “Yes, she is,” he replied, reaching for his rum punch. “She’s also a friend.” His eyes narrowed pointedly at me. “It’s why I’ve never fucked her, touched her, kissed her.” He took a sip of his drink.

  “She sure is friendly,” I added, twirling my finger around the rim of my glass.

  “She is and I don’t like it.” He glared at me. “She’s also not here, you are.”

  Point made. I smiled weakly and took a hardy drink of my punch. I didn’t like the tension I’d put between us.

  “Our next stop isn’t for a while. Want to sit in the sun?” Lunch finished, Tack led me to the bow of the boat where we returned to sit in the netting between the outrigging. Water sprayed up at us from underneath, cooling our skin from the heat of the tropical sun.

  “What made you start your own company?” I asked, knowing he’d said a few things at dinner, but I wanted to know more.

  “I made a promise to build instead of destroy,” he replied with a wink. I smiled and waited for the details.

  “When I returned home, I broke off from my father. Forcing me to the island might have been his greatest gift. I realized how unhappy I was, and I wanted to do more with my life. I wanted to build. I told him my idea. He wasn’t happy about it, he definitely did not approve, but he backed me. I worked my ass off to return his money in the first year and prove it hadn’t been a waste. I wanted to do something more.